xvid/x264 - reduces blockiness in dark scenes

[flebber]

Hi

When I am encoding to xvid or x264 I am getting great results. I have got a setup for both xvid and x264 which produce good results, xvid is a little quicker but I am getting a slightly better quality with x264.

However with either setup when the scenes become darker then more blockiness occurs. Is there any way to reduce blockiness in dark scenes whilst maintaining good quality in the lighter scenes.

I am doing most of my encoding with avidemux. In x264 I have noise reduction turned off internally and use Mplayer Denoise3d, I also am using Mplayer Denoise3d with xvid.

Is there a better denoise then the one I am using ? Is that the cause of the blockiness in dark scenes?

This is my x264
app.video.codec("X264","AQ=22","188 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 28 00 00 00 19 00 00 00 3c 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 33 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 06 00 00 00 28 00 00 00 19 00 00 00 2c 01 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 0f 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 06 00 00 00 18 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 5a 00 00 00 ");


This is my Xvid
app.video.codec("XVID4","2PASSBITRATE=1100","500 06 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 fa 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 1f 00 00 00 1f 00 00 00 1f 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 05 00 00 00 05 00 00 00 05 00 00 00 14 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 96 00 00 00 64 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ");

[Dark Shikari]

Hex strings aren't exactly a good way of expressing your parameters to us... :p

[flebber]

With my x264 I use 22 average quantizer, 6B Rdo with UMH, Range 24 Max Ref Frames 6, Fast P Skip, Noise reduction 0, Strength 0 Threshold 0, Bframes max Consecutive 15 Bias 0, B frame direct mode spatial, Keyframe boost 40% and B-frame reduction 25%, min IDR 25 max IDR 300, all other values are at default.

Noise reduction is done via mplayer denoise3d

[Dark Shikari]

Denoise3d is notorious for destroying detail (which directly causes blockiness in dark areas). You could try raising x264's adaptive quantization strength to try to compensate.

[flebber]

Is there a better noise reduction method I am trying to remove noise from VHS tapes.

I will try fluxsmooth, Temporal cleaner and median(5x5), seperately.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

From flebber's initial post I have to assume he is using Avidemux.
Hopefully he is using one of Gruntster's recent build's, which include latest x264 with VAQ.
Unfortunately there are no GUI options to cpnfigure VAQ yet, so the defaults (2:1,00) will be used...

[flebber]

From flebber's initial post I have to assume he is using Avidemux.
Hopefully he is using one of Gruntster's recent build's, which include latest x264 with VAQ.
Unfortunately there are no GUI options to cpnfigure VAQ yet, so the defaults (2:1,00) will be used...

Yes I am using Avidemux, but haven't yet got the grunster build. I will upgrade and retry. Was using Avidemux 2.4.1 (r3791).

Getting 4017 from http://www.razorbyte.com.au/avidemux/

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Getting 4017 from http://www.razorbyte.com.au/avidemux/

Yup, that's Gruntster's build including x264 r839 with VAQ.

I think you should see some improvement (compared to old build) with that one :)